Abu Dhabi Ports has announced significant volume increases across all of its different import and export trades as the year develops.

The Khalifa Port Container Terminal which is operated by Abu Dhabi Terminals (ADT) has seen a 35% increase in volumes handled in the first quarter of the year. The number of TEUs has increased year on year from 224,080 in 2014 to 302,151 in 2015.

One of the reasons behind this increase is the number of new shipping lines calling at the port and new connections to ports around the region and the world. Abu Dhabi Ports has more than 100 direct connections to global ports and over 36 shipping lines calling at its ports.

One such new service is the direct weekly service to and from Karachi, Pakistan, operated by Wan Hai Lines from Taiwan. Announced by ADT in October 2014, the first vessel under this intra-Gulf service called at Khalifa Port in February, offering a three day service between Khalifa Port and Karachi.

But container traffic is not the only one to have increased. General and Bulk cargo accounts for a considerable volume of traffic through Khalifa Port, Musaffah Port and Zayed Port, and it has increased by 32 percent in the first quarter of 2015, compared to 2014.

Capt. Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, CEO, Abu Dhabi Ports commented: Last year our general and bulk cargo increased by 37 percent over the entire year. This trend looks set to continue looking at our latest figures, as containers, general and bulk cargo have all increased by more than 30 percent to date. This healthy growth is the result of increased import/export activity around various industrial development projects in the emirate and work resuming on some of the Emirates major infrastructure projects.

So far, the ports have handled a total of 3,519,714 FT (freight tonnes) of general and bulk cargo in the first quarter of 2015, compared with 2,663,129 FT in the same period last year.

The vast majority of the Emirate's roll-on, roll-off (RORO) trade is now transiting through the Khalifa Port RORO hub, this too has seen some growth compared to last year. The first quarter of 2015 is up 4.7 percent. This is down to the new services available to customers at Khalifa Port and the introduction of new vehicle models. In Q1 2015, 25,709 vehicles were imported into the Emirate compared with 24,542 in the same period last year.

Last but not least, the 2014-2015 cruise season which ran from October until May, also recorded a significant increase for Q1 2015, up 32 percent compared with the same period last year, that's 115,796 cruise passengers visiting the Emirate compared with 87,713 passengers last year.

Al Shamisi adds: This is a great start to the beginning of the year and we will be working hard with our customers to support and sustain this trade growth. Increased import and export activity underpins Abu Dhabi Ports core objective which is to support trade and development across the Emirate.